Quite true as I said in my previous post it's totally irrelevant and not a race. I was just surprized that a Saints fan came on here and made the effort to boast about something like this. It was childish and a bit like a kidd going na na na na na!

Excellent progress being made. We will be in our iconic stadium before we know it.

Iconic?

Perhaps he's being Ironic?

so we'll be in our ironic stadium. That sounds much better

Glad you said it. Sick of hearing all the rubbish about our "iconic" stadium. Well, I suppose that depends on what you believe the word "iconic" means.

(Not getting at any contributors on here. This is a word used frequently by the club so it's understandable that others will use it too.)

I think the word has since changed to 'Noniconic'

but who cares it's a new stadium in a great location and still looks half decent compared to the tiring old lady.

Agree matey. I would've loved us to have the old stadium we wanted, but I'll happily settle for the new one It's just a shame it's not that little bit different to make it stand out a bit.

Don't get me wrong I think the main stand will look fantastic with all the glass on view from both outside and inside the stadium. It's just a shame that the other three sides of phase one will look a bit naff in comparison.

I think one thing that will make the stadium stand out from others is it's location with tens of thousands of people seeing it from the motorway everyday. A bit like the Reebok but closer to the motorway and on a much busier stretch with an elevated view from the bridge. It will certainly put the name of the club in a lot of people's minds as they pass by.

Cool. One day we may have a profile as high as that of Walsall FC.

Let's hope that if the west stand seats are to be visible from the bridge they get the word "SALFORD" across them.

So you don't see the potential of being in a location like this in comparison to the back streets of Weaste?

Walsall have always been hampered by the fact they are competing against four other big football clubs nearby who have a much richer history than themselves. Villa average 42K, Birmingham and Wolves 30K and WBA 25K. Would you want to watch Walsall if you lived in Birmingham?

Do you honestly believe Bolton would still be in the Premier League if they were still playing at Burnden Park?

No probably not, but I don't think the positioning of the stadium next to the motorway helped them increase their attendance either. At least not with drive by's thinking "hmmmmmmm I might just pop in there and see what it's all about"

That's the key point though. The Reebok is so eye catching. It's aesthetically brilliant whereas Walsall, despite being in a prime location have a stadium that fails to impress. Furthermore, Bolton also compete against some pretty useful clubs in GM and unlike Walsall, have achieved relative success due to the combination a genuinely iconic staduium in a prime location.

Oh, I don't know. I reckon the location of a leisure facility in combination with way it looks is a big selling point. The TC and Chill factore are two examples of this.
I reckon it's a case of planting the seed visually so that when we advertise to the potential newbies, as we do at the Willows, they immediately determine that "yes, it's easy to get to and yes, it looks like a place I'd want to spend Friday evening."

I think it's very different for the TC and chill factor especially. I mean Look at it It's just plain weird and it has snow in it. Thats enough to get people wanting to go and look at it. It's something very new and exciting that they normally wouldn't be able to do.

A square RL stadium or even Boltons for that matter will only encourage people with a passing interest in that particular team/ sport. And footie/ rugby being quite tribal in origin/ nature it won't encourage people to come along unless it's their own team playing there.

If it was the iconic stadium being built , but belonged to Swinton or even Sale sharks would it make you want to go?
I think we all know the answer is NO.

I am sure they must have attracted some people who never went to Burnden Park. What the Reebok did for Bolton was raise the profile of the club which helped them attract more sponsorship and a better caliber of player. It gave them something to sell that was sellable.

And there's where the hope lies in the assumption that we can't tap into a completely new market. There are a sizeable number of people with a passing interest in Salford RL. As we're all too aware from the countless debates on here regarding conversations we've almost all had with people that used to watch Salford. Unfortunately, people in general prefer the edge of town retail park style entertainment venues. Places with no real character but plenty of parking spaces and fast food outlets.

Suppose the question remains as to whether a square stadium can draw the passing interest back or not.

It certainly didn't do Warrington any harm.

Just to add something to that: Warrington had already increased their attendances significantly at Wilderspool before moving to the HJ. It's a fallacy that the new stadium doubled their attendances overnight.

I appreciate that some progress was being made whilst at Wilderspool but it's a fact that their attendances increased by 60% when they moved to the HJ. Warrington added about 4000 to their gates. Hull's gates increased by 72% and 4700 supporters when they moved to the KC.

This isn't something I've dreamed up it was from an article I read in the Rugby League World magazine last year.

But that for me brings me back to the point I was trying to make that new people who did go probably already had a passing interest in Bolton FC .

We have to hope that there are some 3-4000 salford fans out there who refuse to go the Willows. IMO I doubt very much that there is. I think we'll be lucky to get an extra 1000 home supporters.

If we only get another 1500 and a few more away fans plus some extra sponsorship it's much better than what we are getting now. Even Huddersfield managed to attract an extra 730 supporters in the first year playing in a lower division in a much smaller catchment area.

If the club can get another £300K - £350K a year in gate reciepts/merchandise and another £200,000 from hospitality/private box packages it will really drive the club forward. The club will have 750 dining packages to sell and 10 or 12 private boxes.

This extra revenue would make a big difference to a club like our's and take us closer to the salary cap.

I was being facetious. I've actually written articles in the past comparing Salford's potential in a new stadium to that of local ice hockey or LS Lowry painings, both were things that people could see locally anyway (ice hockey at Alty, and Lowry paintings at Peel Park museum), but it wasn't until they were put in a high profile location (Nynex Arena and Lowry Centre) that people went in good numbers to see them.

However, I am wary of the "build it and they will come" attitude. If all eggs are placed in a basket of assuming people will come because it's happened elsewhere then we may be being over-optimistic - remember, both Hull and Warrington, whilst moving to less visually prominent places, both moved to very accessible places - Wire's right in the centre, and Hull's only yards from their historic home.

I agree and I'm sure the club are trying to learn as much as they can from both Hull and Warrington as to why they were successful.

It's interesting that since the construction started I know a lot of people (Non rugby followers who know I go) are talking to me about the new stadium and showing a genuine interest and asking lots of questions. Some have even commented about going to see a game when it opens.

I've been thinking (yes do panic) we all know the stadium will be a fantastic advert for the club due to the passing traffic (literally), and we could get an increase from Barton, Irlam, Cadishead, Eccles, Peel Green, Walkden, Little Hulton, Worsley & maybe even Swinton dues to the locality but what about our visual presence in Salford (in the traditional sense) what chance have we of attracting people for Chapel Street, Irwell, Broughton (Higher & Lower) Kersal, Langworthy, Ordsall, Pendlebury, Weaste, Seedley, out of sight out of mind maybe. The club will have to pull out all the stops to bring in fans from traditional Salford so we could have the same issues we have now, no matter how well we're doing or how good the stadium is.